What is the best electoral system for a democracy? First place at the Leiden University Thesis Awards 2021 is for those who have added a cleverly substantiated, personal vision to this socially relevant theme. ' This is what Annetje Ottow, chairman of the executive board and board member of the Leiden…

Since the decentralizations in the social domain in 2015, nearly all Dutch municipalities use district teams to organize care. However, the management, organization and composition of these district teams vary considerably between municipalities: each municipality tries to reinvent the wheel by itself.…

Over 1600 pupils from primary schools in Leiden and The Hague were taught by a professor of Leiden University on the 444th anniversary of our university. Three professors from the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, visited several classes of group 7 in The Hague.

The House of Representatives in the Netherlands has requested advice from the Council of State about combining membership of the House of Representatives with holding a post in the cabinet. Geerten Boogaard sees this as a sign that the Netherlands is moving towards a constitutional court.

Wout Broekema is shortlisted for the Els Witte Prize 2019, an award for best Doctoral dissertation in political science. The prize is instated by the Nederlandse Kring voor de wetenschap der Politiek (NKWP).

In 2022, Leiden will be the European Capital of Science. An enthusiastic team from our Faculty is already busy planning the activities. Today we speak with Marin Visscher. As a project coordinator, he seeks the connection between university and society.

The Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) has awarded Professor Joanita Vroom with the Aspasia grant of €200,000. She will use this grant to develop a new line in research and education focusing on the long-term dynamics of material culture in the eastern Mediterranean and adjacent…

With a headwind of 80 kilometres per hour, pouring rain and freezing temperatures, Jurjun van der Velde cycles down the Oosterscheldekering. On his traditional Dutch bike with back pedal brake, he is the second PhD student from the faculty to win the title.

Three researchers of Humanities have been awarded with a VIDI research grant. With a VIDI they can spend five years researching the topic they submitte. The grant amounts to a maxium of eight hundred thousand euros.

The unemployment replacement rate data set, assembled by Olaf Van Vliet & Koen Caminada (version 1, January 2012), provides data on unemployment benefit schemes in 34 welfare states from the 1970s until 2009. The current data set includes all 27 member states of the European Union and 7 non-EU OECD…

In 2023, many of our students and staff won great prizes and secured important research grants.

Leiden Law School has a strong tradition of research in the field of fact-finding and evidence in criminal cases.

De decentralisaties van de zorg aan langdurig zieken en ouderen, jeugdzorg, en werk en inkomen die vanaf 2015 zijn doorgevoerd in Nederland hebben geleid tot een transitie van een centraal naar een lokaal stelsel van zorg en welzijn. Deze transitie beoogt zorg en ondersteuning dichter bij de inwoners…

New Approaches to Understanding the Eastern Mediterranean during Byzantine and Ottoman Times

Recently three Public Administration students of Leiden University gave a sturdy advice to the Tax Authorities about the effects of the reorganization, at the invitation of the Ministry of Finance.

Towards the graduation ceremonies, you sense an increasing nervousness. Not only because all the tradition and glamour surrounding the event, also because that will be the day that the winner of the Political Science master’s thesis award will be announced. For 2022-2023, the jury is considering seven…

The formation of a new government is in full swing in the Netherlands. Or more accurately, it is in full deadlock. As a result, the possibility of a minority government is being discussed. Would that be a good idea?

Met groot plezier heeft de Universiteit Leiden van 1 tot 4 november het X Congreso Internacional de la Asociación de Hispanistas del Benelux (AHBx) georganiseerd, met het thema Transhispanismos: contactos y contagios (Transhispanismes: contact en besmetting). De AHBx is een platform in de Benelux dat…

For too long the Dutch collective memory has judged the Jewish Council too harshly. This perspective needs to be adjusted, Bart van der Boom argues in his new book ‘De politiek van het kleinste kwaad’ (lit. ‘The Politics of the Lesser Evil’).

October and November not only bring a number of proud Political Science graduates, it is also the season to determine who wrote the best bachelor’s thesis. For 2021-2022, fifteen theses were nominated. During the various graduation ceremonies the two final winners were announced: Essi Maria Teresia…

A fragmented political landscape, permanent pressure from current affairs and an increasingly political civil service: our government faces many challenges. This makes it all the more difficult to make important decisions about pensions or the climate. Research and good education can help meet the challenges…

2021, again, sees a rich harvest of bachelor theses in Political Science. Students have been tackling fascinating subjects—ranging from European solidarity in the COVID-19 crisis to the representation of women in democratically elected parliaments—and crowning their research projects with interesting,…

Museums have long focused on power, wealth and a few famous figures. But that is changing, says Valika Smeulders, head of the history department at the Rijksmuseum. What this change comprises and how it has come about is the subject of her keynote speech at the D&I Symposium on 11 January.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute is offering an internship in Cairo from March 2018 onwards. If you are interested please apply before February 15, 2018. (See the details in Dutch only)

The PhD students at the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University include a composer, an artist and a baroque flautist. Henk Borgdorff, who studied the phenomenon of PhDs in the Arts, says, ‘Artistic research in all disciplines of the Arts is a booming business worldwide.’

Identifying novel antibiotic compounds to tackle antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Researchers from Leiden University and VU Amsterdam will unite through a project now funded by NWO’s Open Technology Programme (OTP), which awarded the collaboration nearly one million euros.

Researchers at FOM-institute AMOLF and the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) have developed a rubber rod with strange bending behaviours. Beyond a certain point, it bends more under decreasing pressure. This behaviour doesn’t fit our expectations and does not conform to secular laws that predict the…

Twelve weeks of hard work later, the big moment has finally arrived: the third-year students of International Studies are ready to complete the 'Practising International Studies' (PRINS) consultancy programme by pitching their advice. We were invited to attend the presentations on behalf of Free Press…

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute is offering an internship in Cairo from January 2019 onwards. If you are interested please apply before 20 December, 2018. (See the details in Dutch only)

With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our Galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo is offering an internship from September 2019 onwards. If you are interested please apply before 15 July, 2019. (See the details in Dutch only)

University lecturer in Management & Organisation Sarita Koendjbiharie is a welcome lecturer on The Hague campus, and not only because she takes a genuine interest in her students. In fact, Koendjbiharie brings her dog Coco to campus whenever she can.

Neele Boelens is a board member at DWARS, the youth organisation of political party GroenLinks. In addition, she is studying towards two degrees at Leiden University: Linguistics and Public Administration. A busy year, especially with the upcoming elections.

Japanese animated films are often fantastic to watch. What's less known is that anime often has a political message. Mari Nakamura researched this phenomenon. PhD defence 14 March.

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

The student loan system, implemented in 2015 in part to improve the quality of Dutch education, is facing political backlash. Despite having signed the student loan system agreement in 2015, both GroenLinks and PvdA have had a change of heart.

Joop van Holsteyn, Professor in Political Behaviour and Research Methods (Leiden University Institute of Political Science), joins the Dutch Electoral Council.

On Wednesday 27 September a new book by Prof. Luuk van Middelaar will appear, entitled The new politics of Europe. Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice-president, presents the book that evening during a symposium around the same theme.

Hans-Martien ten Napel recently published a volume with Routledge, Culture, Secularization, and Democracy; Lessons from Alexis de Tocqueville, co-edited with Prof. Sophie van Bijsterveld (Radboud University Nijmegen).

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

What is life like as an academic? Twelve PhD candidates will report on their daily work in videos and blogs on the Faces of Science website (in Dutch). They include three researchers from Leiden who are researching topics such as North Korean support for African liberation movements, how differently…

A ‘new governance culture’ – a hot topic for a number of years now. What kind of culture of public administration do we have in the Netherlands and how do you change it? This question is the focus of the podcast Het Spel & De Macht (the Game & the Power). Each episode considers one theme related to…

How do you deal with bullying? How can you motivate young people? At the NeurolabNL symposium a multidisciplinary research team launched an interactive book for teachers and youth workers. This digital book offers the latest insights and plenty of useful tips and advice. Children’s Ombudsman Margrite…

Over hundreds of thousands of years, our region witnessed the comings and goings of various types of hominin. This depended on the temperature as ice ages alternated with warmer periods. In ‘De eerste mensen in de Lage Landen’ (‘The First Humans in the Low Countries’) Leiden archaeologists Yannick Raczynski-Henk…

Developmental psychologist Ili Ma has been awarded an ERC grant to investigate misinformation among teenagers, aiming to bolster their resilience against its potentially severe consequences.

Livia, aged 7, was in class four. She loved to chat and was good at reading aloud. At least, at home. At school she never read aloud and she hadn't spoken a single word. What was going on? Selective mutism was the subject of the inaugural lecture by Maretha de Jonge, Professor by Special Appointment…

If you follow the western media, you are likely to think of ‘Africa’ as the continent of origin of desperate migrants, a continent of hunger and disease and a breeding ground for international terrorism. But if you want to see the bigger picture, you should look no further than the African Studies scholars…

Ramsey Albers wins Political Science Master’s Thesis Prize 2022